Podcast appearances and mentions of stephen woolley

In this week's episode of Kermode On Film you can hear the second half of the MK3D show recorded on 5th December 2022 —the 75th MK3D show live at the BFI Southbank.Mark is joined by screenwriter Tony Kushner to talk about his collaboration with Steven Spielberg on The Fabelmans. Tony reflects on the deeply personal nature of the film and the process of working with Spielberg to bring this autobiographical story to life. And he talks about his guilty pleasure – it's a true Hollywood Classic!Actress Aimee Lou Wood and producer Stephen Woolley talk to Mark about their film Living, in which Aimee stars. Stephen shares how this remake of Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru came to fruition, and Aimee discusses working with the brilliant Bill Nighy.You can hear the first half of this MK3D show on last week's Kermode On Film.If you've enjoyed this podcast, remember to like, subscribe, and tell your friends. And if you want to experience MK3D live, head over to the BFI website for tickets to our next show.———————The opening title sequence of Kermode on Film uses quotes from:- Mary Poppins, directed by Robert Stevenson and distributed by Walt Disney Motion Pictures – quote featuring Julie Andrews.-Nope, written, directed and produced by Jordan Peele, and distributed by Universal Studios – quote featuring Keke Palmer.-Withnail & I, written and directed by Bruce Robinson, and distributed by HandMade Films – quote featuring Richard E Grant.-The Exorcist, written by William Peter Blatty and directed by William Friedkin, distributed by Warner Brothers – quote featuring Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair.We love these films. We urge you to seek them out, and watch them, again and again. They are masterpieces!Kermode on Film is an HLA Agency production.This episode was edited by Alex Archbold Jones.© HLA AgencyHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.#markkermode #kermodeonfilm #MK3D #BFI #TonyKushner #StevenSpielberg #TheFabelmans #RobertAldrich #BetteDavis #JoanCrawford #WhateverHappenedToBabyJane #AimeeLouWood #StephenWoolley #BillNighy #Living #AkiraKurosawa #Ikuru #TheirFinest #OliverHermanus Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week's episode of Kermode On Film takes us to Christmas 2022, and a special milestone —the 75th MK3D show, recorded live at the BFI Southbank on Monday 5 December 2022You can hear the first half of that MK3D show on this podcast.Mark welcomes a great lineup of guests, starting with director Hassan Nazer, who talks about his award-winning, aptly named film Winners. Hassan also shares stories of his Iranian heritage, the films that influenced him, and his journey to becoming a filmmaker in the UK.Next, Mark talks to Mark Jenkin and Mary Woodvine about their Cornish folk horror Enys Men, and about the BFI season that Mark Jenkin curated: “The Cinematic DNA of Enys Men”.And finally, Mark is joined by Oscar-winning director Edward Berger, to discuss his powerful remake of All Quiet on the Western Front. Edward talks about what drew him to retelling this classic, about his connection to the original novel, and the challenges of depicting visceral scenes on screen.In next week's episode, you'll hear the next half of the show, featuring screenwriter Tony Kushner, who talks about his collaboration with Steven Spielberg on The Fabelmans, and Aimee Lou Wood and Stephen Woolley who talk about Living, the remake of Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru.If you've enjoyed this podcast, remember to like, subscribe, and tell your friends.And if you want to experience MK3D live, head over to the BFI website for tickets to our next show.———————The opening title sequence of Kermode on Film uses quotes from:- Mary Poppins, directed by Robert Stevenson and distributed by Walt Disney Motion Pictures – quote featuring Julie Andrews.-Nope, written, directed and produced by Jordan Peele, and distributed by Universal Studios – quote featuring Keke Palmer.-Withnail & I, written and directed by Bruce Robinson, and distributed by HandMade Films – quote featuring Richard E Grant.-The Exorcist, written by William Peter Blatty and directed by William Friedkin, distributed by Warner Brothers – quote featuring Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair.We love these films. We urge you to seek them out, and watch them, again and again. They are masterpieces!———————Kermode on Film is an HLA Agency production.This episode was edited by Alex Archbold Jones.© HLA AgencyHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.#MarkKermode #KermodeonFilm #MK3D #BFI #MarkJenkin #MaryWoodvine #EnysMen #HassanNazer #Winners #EdwardBerger #AllQuietOnTheWesternFront #AbbasKiarostami #AndWhereIsTheFriendsHouse #MajidMajidi #ChildrenOfHeaven #LawrenceGordonClark #Stigma #BBCGhostStories #NottingHill #JuliaRoberts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Daniel Kaluuya on making his debut as a director and screenwriter with his new film, Kitchen - a dystopian thriller set in London twenty years from now.Dafydd Rhys, Chief Executive of the Arts Council of Wales, on the surprising and controversial decision to stop funding National Theatre Wales. Plus, as his organisation faces a 10% budget cut, he talks about the impact on the creative sector in Wales.Late last year, the decision by Warner Bros. to shelve a $70 million film which had been completed and scheduled for release in 2023 sent shockwaves throughout the industry. Film producer Stephen Woolley and Tatiana Siegal, Executive Editor, Film & Media at Variety, discuss what this reveals about the current state of filmmaking in Hollywood.Korean Danish artist Jane Jin Kaisen describes her work as giving aesthetic shape to histories that in different ways and for different reasons have been silenced or marginalised. As her solo exhibition at esea contemporary in Manchester prepares to open, the director of the gallery, Xiaowen Zhu, reflects on a show which weaves personal and political stories rooted in Jeju Island, South Korea.Presenter Nick Ahad Producer: Ekene Akalawu

We finally complete our mini-series on the 1980s movies released by Miramax Films in 1989, a year that included sex, lies, and videotape, and My Left Foot. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT   From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it's The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today.   On this episode, we complete our look back at the 1980s theatrical releases for Miramax Films. And, for the final time, a reminder that we are not celebrating Bob and Harvey Weinstein, but reminiscing about the movies they had no involvement in making. We cannot talk about cinema in the 1980s without talking about Miramax, and I really wanted to get it out of the way, once and for all.   As we left Part 4, Miramax was on its way to winning its first Academy Award, Billie August's Pelle the Conquerer, the Scandinavian film that would be second film in a row from Denmark that would win for Best Foreign Language Film.   In fact, the first two films Miramax would release in 1989, the Australian film Warm Night on a Slow Moving Train and the Anthony Perkins slasher film Edge of Sanity, would not arrive in theatres until the Friday after the Academy Awards ceremony that year, which was being held on the last Wednesday in March.   Warm Nights on a Slow Moving Train stars Wendy Hughes, the talented Australian actress who, sadly, is best remembered today as Lt. Commander Nella Daren, one of Captain Jean-Luc Picard's few love interests, on a 1993 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, as Jenny, a prostitute working a weekend train to Sydney, who is seduced by a man on the train, unaware that he plans on tricking her to kill someone for him. Colin Friels, another great Aussie actor who unfortunately is best known for playing the corrupt head of Strack Industries in Sam Raimi's Darkman, plays the unnamed man who will do anything to get what he wants.   Director Bob Ellis and his co-screenwriter Denny Lawrence came up with the idea for the film while they themselves were traveling on a weekend train to Sydney, with the idea that each client the call girl met on the train would represent some part of the Australian male.   Funding the $2.5m film was really simple… provided they cast Hughes in the lead role. Ellis and Lawrence weren't against Hughes as an actress. Any film would be lucky to have her in the lead. They just felt she she didn't have the right kind of sex appeal for this specific character.   Miramax would open the film in six theatres, including the Cineplex Beverly Center in Los Angeles and the Fashion Village 8 in Orlando, on March 31st. There were two versions of the movie prepared, one that ran 130 minutes and the other just 91. Miramax would go with the 91 minute version of the film for the American release, and most of the critics would note how clunky and confusing the film felt, although one critic for the Village Voice would have some kind words for Ms. Hughes' performance.   Whether it was because moviegoers were too busy seeing the winners of the just announced Academy Awards, including Best Picture winner Rain Man, or because this weekend was also the opening weekend of the new Major League Baseball season, or just turned off by the reviews, attendance at the theatres playing Warm Nights on a Slow Moving Train was as empty as a train dining car at three in the morning. The Beverly Center alone would account for a third of the movie's opening weekend gross of $19,268. After a second weekend at the same six theatres pocketing just $14,382, this train stalled out, never to arrive at another station.   Their other March 31st release, Edge of Sanity, is notable for two things and only two things: it would be the first film Miramax would release under their genre specialty label, Millimeter Films, which would eventually evolve into Dimension Films in the next decade, and it would be the final feature film to star Anthony Perkins before his passing in 1992.   The film is yet another retelling of the classic 1886 Robert Louis Stevenson story The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, with the bonus story twist that Hyde was actually Jack the Ripper. As Jekyll, Perkins looks exactly as you'd expect a mid-fifties Norman Bates to look. As Hyde, Perkins is made to look like he's a backup keyboardist for the first Nine Inch Nails tour. Head Like a Hole would have been an appropriate song for the end credits, had the song or Pretty Hate Machine been released by that time, with its lyrics about bowing down before the one you serve and getting what you deserve.   Edge of Sanity would open in Atlanta and Indianapolis on March 31st. And like so many other Miramax releases in the 1980s, they did not initially announce any grosses for the film. That is, until its fourth weekend of release, when the film's theatre count had fallen to just six, down from the previous week's previously unannounced 35, grossing just $9,832. Miramax would not release grosses for the film again, with a final total of just $102,219.   Now when I started this series, I said that none of the films Miramax released in the 1980s were made by Miramax, but this next film would become the closest they would get during the decade.   In July 1961, John Profumo was the Secretary of State for War in the conservative government of British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, when the married Profumo began a sexual relationship with a nineteen-year-old model named Christine Keeler. The affair was very short-lived, either ending, depending on the source, in August 1961 or December 1961. Unbeknownst to Profumo, Keeler was also having an affair with Yevgeny Ivanov, a senior naval attache at the Soviet Embassy at the same time.   No one was the wiser on any of this until December 1962, when a shooting incident involving two other men Keeler had been involved with led the press to start looking into Keeler's life. While it was never proven that his affair with Keeler was responsible for any breaches of national security, John Profumo was forced to resign from his position in June 1963, and the scandal would take down most of the Torie government with him. Prime Minister Macmillan would resign due to “health reasons” in October 1963, and the Labour Party would take control of the British government when the next elections were held in October 1964.   Scandal was originally planned in the mid-1980s as a three-part, five-hour miniseries by Australian screenwriter Michael Thomas and American music producer turned movie producer Joe Boyd. The BBC would commit to finance a two-part, three-hour miniseries,  until someone at the network found an old memo from the time of the Profumo scandal that forbade them from making any productions about it. Channel 4, which had been producing quality shows and movies for several years since their start in 1982, was approached, but rejected the series on the grounds of taste.   Palace Pictures, a British production company who had already produced three films for Neil Jordan including Mona Lisa, was willing to finance the script, provided it could be whittled down to a two hour movie. Originally budgeted at 3.2m British pounds, the costs would rise as they started the casting process.  John Hurt, twice Oscar-nominated for his roles in Midnight Express and The Elephant Man, would sign on to play Stephen Ward, a British osteopath who acted as Christine Keeler's… well… pimp, for lack of a better word. Ian McKellen, a respected actor on British stages and screens but still years away from finding mainstream global success in the X-Men movies, would sign on to play John Profumo. Joanne Whaley, who had filmed the yet to be released at that time Willow with her soon to be husband Val Kilmer, would get her first starring role as Keeler, and Bridget Fonda, who was quickly making a name for herself in the film world after being featured in Aria, would play Mandy Rice-Davies, the best friend and co-worker of Keeler's.   To save money, Palace Pictures would sign thirty-year-old Scottish filmmaker Michael Caton-Jones to direct, after seeing a short film he had made called The Riveter. But even with the neophyte feature filmmaker, Palace still needed about $2.35m to be able to fully finance the film. And they knew exactly who to go to.   Stephen Woolley, the co-founder of Palace Pictures and the main producer on the film, would fly from London to New York City to personally pitch Harvey and Bob Weinstein. Woolley felt that of all the independent distributors in America, they would be the ones most attracted to the sexual and controversial nature of the story. A day later, Woolley was back on a plane to London. The Weinsteins had agreed to purchase the American distribution rights to Scandal for $2.35m.   The film would spend two months shooting in the London area through the summer of 1988. Christine Keeler had no interest in the film, and refused to meet the now Joanne Whaley-Kilmer to talk about the affair, but Mandy Rice-Davies was more than happy to Bridget Fonda about her life, although the meetings between the two women were so secret, they would not come out until Woolley eulogized Rice-Davies after her 2014 death.   Although Harvey and Bob would be given co-executive producers on the film, Miramax was not a production company on the film. This, however, did not stop Harvey from flying to London multiple times, usually when he was made aware of some sexy scene that was going to shoot the following day, and try to insinuate himself into the film's making. At one point, Woolley decided to take a weekend off from the production, and actually did put Harvey in charge. That weekend's shoot would include a skinny-dipping scene featuring the Christine Keeler character, but when Whaley-Kilmer learned Harvey was going to be there, she told the director that she could not do the nudity in the scene. Her new husband was objecting to it, she told them. Harvey, not skipping a beat, found a lookalike for the actress who would be willing to bare all as a body double, and the scene would begin shooting a few hours later. Whaley-Kilmer watched the shoot from just behind the camera, and stopped the shoot a few minutes later. She was not happy that the body double's posterior was notably larger than her own, and didn't want audiences to think she had that much junk in her trunk. The body double was paid for her day, and Whaley-Kilmer finished the rest of the scene herself.   Caton-Jones and his editing team worked on shaping the film through the fall, and would screen his first edit of the film for Palace Pictures and the Weinsteins in November 1988. And while Harvey was very happy with the cut, he still asked the production team for a different edit for American audiences, noting that most Americans had no idea who Profumo or Keeler or Rice-Davies were, and that Americans would need to understand the story more right out of the first frame. Caton-Jones didn't want to cut a single frame, but he would work with Harvey to build an American-friendly cut.   While he was in London in November 1988, he would meet with the producers of another British film that was in pre-production at the time that would become another important film to the growth of the company, but we're not quite at that part of the story yet. We'll circle around to that film soon.   One of the things Harvey was most looking forward to going in to 1989 was the expected battle with the MPAA ratings board over Scandal. Ever since he had seen the brouhaha over Angel Heart's X rating two years earlier, he had been looking for a similar battle. He thought he had it with Aria in 1988, but he knew he definitely had it now.   And he'd be right.   In early March, just a few weeks before the film's planned April 21st opening day, the MPAA slapped an X rating on Scandal. The MPAA usually does not tell filmmakers or distributors what needs to be cut, in order to avoid accusations of actual censorship, but according to Harvey, they told him exactly what needed to be cut to get an R: a two second shot during an orgy scene, where it appears two background characters are having unsimulated sex.   So what did Harvey do?   He spent weeks complaining to the press about MPAA censorship, generating millions in free publicity for the film, all the while already having a close-up shot of Joanne Whaley-Kilmer's Christine Keeler watching the orgy but not participating in it, ready to replace the objectionable shot.   A few weeks later, Miramax screened the “edited” film to the MPAA and secured the R rating, and the film would open on 94 screens, including 28 each in the New York City and Los Angeles metro regions, on April 28th.   And while the reviews for the film were mostly great, audiences were drawn to the film for the Miramax-manufactured controversy as well as the key art for the film, a picture of a potentially naked Joanne Whaley-Kilmer sitting backwards in a chair, a mimic of a very famous photo Christine Keeler herself took to promote a movie about the Profumo affair she appeared in a few years after the events. I'll have a picture of both the Scandal poster and the Christine Keeler photo on this episode's page at The80sMoviePodcast.com   Five other movies would open that weekend, including the James Belushi comedy K-9 and the Kevin Bacon drama Criminal Law, and Scandal, with $658k worth of ticket sales, would have the second best per screen average of the five new openers, just a few hundred dollars below the new Holly Hunter movie Miss Firecracker, which only opened on six screens.   In its second weekend, Scandal would expand its run to 214 playdates, and make its debut in the national top ten, coming in tenth place with $981k. That would be more than the second week of the Patrick Dempsey rom-com Loverboy, even though Loverboy was playing on 5x as many screens.   In weekend number three, Scandal would have its best overall gross and top ten placement, coming in seventh with $1.22m from 346 screens. Scandal would start to slowly fade after that, falling back out of the top ten in its sixth week, but Miramax would wisely keep the screen count under 375, because Scandal wasn't going to play well in all areas of the country. After nearly five months in theatres, Miramax would have its biggest film to date. Scandal would gross $8.8m.   The second release from Millimeter Films was The Return of the Swamp Thing. And if you needed a reason why the 1980s was not a good time for comic book movies, here you are. The Return of the Swamp Thing took most of what made the character interesting in his comic series, and most of what was good from the 1982 Wes Craven adaptation, and decided “Hey, you know what would bring the kids in? Camp! Camp unseen in a comic book adaptation since the 1960s Batman series. They loved it then, they'll love it now!”   They did not love it now.   Heather Locklear, between her stints on T.J. Hooker and Melrose Place, plays the step-daughter of Louis Jourdan's evil Dr. Arcane from the first film, who heads down to the Florida swaps to confront dear old once presumed dead stepdad. He in turns kidnaps his stepdaughter and decides to do some of his genetic experiments on her, until she is rescued by Swamp Thing, one of Dr. Arcane's former co-workers who got turned into the gooey anti-hero in the first movie.   The film co-stars Sarah Douglas from Superman 1 and 2 as Dr. Arcane's assistant, Dick Durock reprising his role as Swamp Thing from the first film, and 1980s B-movie goddess Monique Gabrielle as Miss Poinsettia.   For director Jim Wynorski, this was his sixth movie as a director, and at $3m, one of the highest budgeted movies he would ever make. He's directed 107 movies since 1984, most of them low budget direct to video movies with titles like The Bare Wench Project and Alabama Jones and the Busty Crusade, although he does have one genuine horror classic under his belt, the 1986 sci-fi tinged Chopping Maul with Kelli Maroney and Barbara Crampton.   Wynorski suggested in a late 1990s DVD commentary for the film that he didn't particularly enjoy making the film, and had a difficult time directing Louis Jourdan, to the point that outside of calling “action” and “cut,” the two didn't speak to each other by the end of the shoot.   The Return of Swamp Thing would open in 123 theatres in the United States on May 12th, including 28 in the New York City metro region, 26 in the Los Angeles area, 15 in Detroit, and a handful of theatres in Phoenix, San Francisco. And, strangely, the newspaper ads would include an actual positive quote from none other than Roger Ebert, who said on Siskel & Ebert that he enjoyed himself, and that it was good to have Swamp Thing back. Siskel would not reciprocate his balcony partner's thumb up. But Siskel was about the only person who was positive on the return of Swamp Thing, and that box office would suffer. In its first three days, the film would gross just $119,200. After a couple more dismal weeks in theatres, The Return of Swamp Thing would be pulled from distribution, with a final gross of just $275k.   Fun fact: The Return of Swamp Thing was produced by Michael E. Uslan, whose next production, another adaptation of a DC Comics character, would arrive in theatres not six weeks later and become the biggest film of the summer. In fact, Uslan has been a producer or executive producer on every Batman-related movie and television show since 1989, from Tim Burton to Christopher Nolan to Zack Snyder to Matt Reeves, and from LEGO movies to Joker. He also, because of his ownership of the movie rights to Swamp Thing, got the movie screen rights, but not the television screen rights, to John Constantine.   Miramax didn't have too much time to worry about The Return of Swamp Thing's release, as it was happening while the Brothers Weinstein were at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival. They had two primary goals at Cannes that year:   To buy American distribution rights to any movie that would increase their standing in the cinematic worldview, which they would achieve by picking up an Italian dramedy called, at the time, New Paradise Cinema, which was competing for the Palme D'Or with a Miramax pickup from Sundance back in January. Promote that very film, which did end up winning the Palme D'Or.   Ever since he was a kid, Steven Soderbergh wanted to be a filmmaker. Growing up in Baton Rouge, LA in the late 1970s, he would enroll in the LSU film animation class, even though he was only 15 and not yet a high school graduate. After graduating high school, he decided to move to Hollywood to break into the film industry, renting an above-garage room from Stephen Gyllenhaal, the filmmaker best known as the father of Jake and Maggie, but after a few freelance editing jobs, Soderbergh packed up his things and headed home to Baton Rouge.   Someone at Atco Records saw one of Soderbergh's short films, and hired him to direct a concert movie for one of their biggest bands at the time, Yes, who was enjoying a major comeback thanks to their 1983 triple platinum selling album, 90125. The concert film, called 9012Live, would premiere on MTV in late 1985, and it would be nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video.   Soderbergh would use the money he earned from that project, $7,500, to make Winston, a 12 minute black and white short about sexual deception that he would, over the course of an eight day driving trip from Baton Rouge to Los Angeles, expand to a full length screen that he would call sex, lies and videotape. In later years, Soderbergh would admit that part of the story is autobiographical, but not the part you might think. Instead of the lead, Graham, an impotent but still sexually perverse late twentysomething who likes to tape women talking about their sexual fantasies for his own pleasure later, Soderbergh based the husband John, the unsophisticated lawyer who cheats on his wife with her sister, on himself, although there would be a bit of Graham that borrows from the filmmaker. Like his lead character, Soderbergh did sell off most of his possessions and hit the road to live a different life.   When he finished the script, he sent it out into the wilds of Hollywood. Morgan Mason, the son of actor James Mason and husband of Go-Go's lead singer Belinda Carlisle, would read it and sign on as an executive producer. Soderbergh had wanted to shoot the film in black and white, like he had with the Winston short that lead to the creation of this screenplay, but he and Mason had trouble getting anyone to commit to the project, even with only a projected budget of $200,000. For a hot moment, it looked like Universal might sign on to make the film, but they would eventually pass.   Robert Newmyer, who had left his job as a vice president of production and acquisitions at Columbia Pictures to start his own production company, signed on as a producer, and helped to convince Soderbergh to shoot the film in color, and cast some name actors in the leading roles. Once he acquiesced, Richard Branson's Virgin Vision agreed to put up $540k of the newly budgeted $1.2m film, while RCA/Columbia Home Video would put up the remaining $660k.   Soderbergh and his casting director, Deborah Aquila, would begin their casting search in New York, where they would meet with, amongst others, Andie MacDowell, who had already starred in two major Hollywood pictures, 1984's Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, and 1985's St. Elmo's Fire, but was still considered more of a top model than an actress, and Laura San Giacomo, who had recently graduated from the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama in Pittsburgh and would be making her feature debut. Moving on to Los Angeles, Soderbergh and Aquila would cast James Spader, who had made a name for himself as a mostly bad guy in 80s teen movies like Pretty in Pink and Less Than Zero, but had never been the lead in a drama like this. At Spader's suggestion, the pair met with Peter Gallagher, who was supposed to become a star nearly a decade earlier from his starring role in Taylor Hackford's The Idolmaker, but had mostly been playing supporting roles in television shows and movies for most of the decade.   In order to keep the budget down, Soderbergh, the producers, cinematographer Walt Lloyd and the four main cast members agreed to get paid their guild minimums in exchange for a 50/50 profit participation split with RCA/Columbia once the film recouped its costs.   The production would spend a week in rehearsals in Baton Rouge, before the thirty day shoot began on August 1st, 1988. On most days, the shoot was unbearable for many, as temperatures would reach as high as 110 degrees outside, but there were a couple days lost to what cinematographer Lloyd said was “biblical rains.” But the shoot completed as scheduled, and Soderbergh got to the task of editing right away. He knew he only had about eight weeks to get a cut ready if the film was going to be submitted to the 1989 U.S. Film Festival, now better known as Sundance. He did get a temporary cut of the film ready for submission, with a not quite final sound mix, and the film was accepted to the festival. It would make its world premiere on January 25th, 1989, in Park City UT, and as soon as the first screening was completed, the bids from distributors came rolling in. Larry Estes, the head of RCA/Columbia Home Video, would field more than a dozen submissions before the end of the night, but only one distributor was ready to make a deal right then and there.   Bob Weinstein wasn't totally sold on the film, but he loved the ending, and he loved that the word “sex” not only was in the title but lead the title. He knew that title alone would sell the movie. Harvey, who was still in New York the next morning, called Estes to make an appointment to meet in 24 hours. When he and Estes met, he brought with him three poster mockups the marketing department had prepared, and told Estes he wasn't going to go back to New York until he had a contract signed, and vowed to beat any other deal offered by $100,000. Island Pictures, who had made their name releasing movies like Stop Making Sense, Kiss of the Spider-Woman, The Trip to Bountiful and She's Gotta Have It, offered $1m for the distribution rights, plus a 30% distribution fee and a guaranteed $1m prints and advertising budget. Estes called Harvey up and told him what it would take to make the deal. $1.1m for the distribution rights, which needed to paid up front, a $1m P&A budget, to be put in escrow upon the signing of the contract until the film was released, a 30% distribution fee, no cutting of the film whatsoever once Soderbergh turns in his final cut, they would need to provide financial information for the films costs and returns once a month because of the profit participation contracts, and the Weinsteins would have to hire Ira Deutchman, who had spent nearly 15 years in the independent film world, doing marketing for Cinema 5, co-founding United Artists Classics, and co-founding Cinecom Pictures before opening his own company to act as a producers rep and marketer. And the Weinsteins would not only have to do exactly what Deutchman wanted, they'd have to pay for his services too.   The contract was signed a few weeks later.   The first move Miramax would make was to get Soderbergh's final cut of the film entered into the Cannes Film Festival, where it would be accepted to compete in the main competition. Which you kind of already know what happened, because that's what I lead with. The film would win the Palme D'Or, and Spader would be awarded the festival's award for Best Actor. It was very rare at the time, and really still is, for any film to be awarded more than one prize, so winning two was really a coup for the film and for Miramax, especially when many critics attending the festival felt Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing was the better film.   In March, Miramax expected the film to make around $5-10m, which would net the company a small profit on the film. After Cannes, they were hopeful for a $15m gross.   They never expected what would happen next.   On August 4th, sex, lies, and videotape would open on four screens, at the Cinema Studio in New York City, and at the AMC Century 14, the Cineplex Beverly Center 13 and the Mann Westwood 4 in Los Angeles. Three prime theatres and the best they could do in one of the then most competitive zones in all America. Remember, it's still the Summer 1989 movie season, filled with hits like Batman, Dead Poets Society, Ghostbusters 2, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Lethal Weapon 2, Parenthood, Turner & Hooch, and When Harry Met Sally. An independent distributor even getting one screen at the least attractive theatre in Westwood was a major get. And despite the fact that this movie wasn't really a summertime movie per se, the film would gross an incredible $156k in its first weekend from just these four theatres. Its nearly $40k per screen average would be 5x higher than the next closest film, Parenthood.   In its second weekend, the film would expand to 28 theatres, and would bring in over $600k in ticket sales, its per screen average of $21,527 nearly triple its closest competitor, Parenthood again. The company would keep spending small, as it slowly expanded the film each successive week. Forty theatres in its third week, and 101 in its fourth. The numbers held strong, and in its fifth week, Labor Day weekend, the film would have its first big expansion, playing in 347 theatres. The film would enter the top ten for the first time, despite playing in 500 to 1500 fewer theatres than the other films in the top ten. In its ninth weekend, the film would expand to its biggest screen count, 534, before slowly drawing down as the other major Oscar contenders started their theatrical runs. The film would continue to play through the Oscar season of 1989, and when it finally left theatres in May 1989, its final gross would be an astounding $24.7m.   Now, remember a few moments ago when I said that Miramax needed to provide financial statements every month for the profit participation contracts of Soderbergh, the producers, the cinematographer and the four lead actors? The film was so profitable for everyone so quickly that RCA/Columbia made its first profit participation payouts on October 17th, barely ten weeks after the film's opening.   That same week, Soderbergh also made what was at the time the largest deal with a book publisher for the writer/director's annotated version of the screenplay, which would also include his notes created during the creation of the film. That $75,000 deal would be more than he got paid to make the movie as the writer and the director and the editor, not counting the profit participation checks.   During the awards season, sex, lies, and videotape was considered to be one of the Oscars front runners for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay and at least two acting nominations. The film would be nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress by the Golden Globes, and it would win the Spirit Awards for Best Picture, Soderbergh for Best Director, McDowell for Best Actress, and San Giacomo for Best Supporting Actress. But when the Academy Award nominations were announced, the film would only receive one nomination, for Best Original Screenplay. The same total and category as Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, which many people also felt had a chance for a Best Picture and Best Director nomination. Both films would lose out to Tom Shulman's screenplay for Dead Poet's Society.   The success of sex, lies, and videotape would launch Steven Soderbergh into one of the quirkiest Hollywood careers ever seen, including becoming the first and only director ever to be nominated twice for Best Director in the same year by the Motion Picture Academy, the Golden Globes and the Directors Guild of America, in 2001 for directing Erin Brockovich and Traffic. He would win the Oscar for directing Traffic.   Lost in the excitement of sex, lies, and videotape was The Little Thief, a French movie that had an unfortunate start as the screenplay François Truffaut was working on when he passed away in 1984 at the age of just 52.   Directed by Claude Miller, whose principal mentor was Truffaut, The Little Thief starred seventeen year old Charlotte Gainsbourg as Janine, a young woman in post-World War II France who commits a series of larcenies to support her dreams of becoming wealthy.   The film was a modest success in France when it opened in December 1988, but its American release date of August 25th, 1989, was set months in advance. So when it was obvious sex, lies, and videotape was going to be a bigger hit than they originally anticipated, it was too late for Miramax to pause the release of The Little Thief.   Opening at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas in New York City, and buoyed by favorable reviews from every major critic in town, The Little Thief would see $39,931 worth of ticket sales in its first seven days, setting a new house record at the theatre for the year. In its second week, the gross would only drop $47. For the entire week. And when it opened at the Royal Theatre in West Los Angeles, its opening week gross of $30,654 would also set a new house record for the year.   The film would expand slowly but surely over the next several weeks, often in single screen playdates in major markets, but it would never play on more than twenty-four screens in any given week. And after four months in theatres, The Little Thief, the last movie created one of the greatest film writers the world had ever seen, would only gross $1.056m in the United States.   The next three releases from Miramax were all sent out under the Millimeter Films banner.   The first, a supernatural erotic drama called The Girl in a Swing, was about an English antiques dealer who travels to Copenhagen where he meets and falls in love with a mysterious German-born secretary, whom he marries, only to discover a darker side to his new bride. Rupert Frazer, who played Christian Bale's dad in Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun, plays the antique dealer, while Meg Tilly the mysterious new bride.   Filmed over a five week schedule in London and Copenhagen during May and June 1988, some online sources say the film first opened somewhere in California in December 1988, but I cannot find a single theatre not only in California but anywhere in the United States that played the film before its September 29th, 1989 opening date.   Roger Ebert didn't like the film, and wished Meg Tilly's “genuinely original performance” was in a better movie. Opening in 26 theatres, including six theatres each in New York City and Los Angeles, and spurred on by an intriguing key art for the film that featured a presumed naked Tilly on a swing looking seductively at the camera while a notice underneath her warns that No One Under 18 Will Be Admitted To The Theatre, The Girl in a Swing would gross $102k, good enough for 35th place nationally that week. And that's about the best it would do. The film would limp along, moving from market to market over the course of the next three months, and when its theatrical run was complete, it could only manage about $747k in ticket sales.   We'll quickly burn through the next two Millimeter Films releases, which came out a week apart from each other and didn't amount to much.   Animal Behavior was a rather unfunny comedy featuring some very good actors who probably signed on for a very different movie than the one that came to be. Karen Allen, Miss Marion Ravenwood herself, stars as Alex, a biologist who, like Dr. Jane Goodall, develops a “new” way to communicate with chimpanzees via sign language. Armand Assante plays a cellist who pursues the good doctor, and Holly Hunter plays the cellist's neighbor, who Alex mistakes for his wife.   Animal Behavior was filmed in 1984, and 1985, and 1987, and 1988. The initial production was directed by Jenny Bowen with the assistance of Robert Redford and The Sundance Institute, thanks to her debut film, 1981's Street Music featuring Elizabeth Daily. It's unknown why Bowen and her cinematographer husband Richard Bowen left the project, but when filming resumed again and again and again, those scenes were directed by the film's producer, Kjehl Rasmussen.   Because Bowen was not a member of the DGA at the time, she was not able to petition the guild for the use of the Alan Smithee pseudonym, a process that is automatically triggered whenever a director is let go of a project and filming continues with its producer taking the reigns as director. But she was able to get the production to use a pseudonym anyway for the director's credit, H. Anne Riley, while also giving Richard Bowen a pseudonym of his own for his work on the film, David Spellvin.   Opening on 24 screens on October 27th, Animal Behavior would come in 50th place in its opening weekend, grossing just $20,361. The New York film critics ripped the film apart, and there wouldn't be a second weekend for the film.   The following Friday, November 3rd, saw the release of The Stepfather II, a rushed together sequel to 1987's The Stepfather, which itself wasn't a big hit in theatres but found a very quick and receptive audience on cable.   Despite dying at the end of the first film, Terry O'Quinn's Jerry is somehow still alive, and institutionalized in Northern Washington state. He escapes and heads down to Los Angeles, where he assumes the identity of a recently deceased publisher, Gene Clifford, but instead passes himself off as a psychiatrist. Jerry, now Gene, begins to court his neighbor Carol, and the whole crazy story plays out again. Meg Foster plays the neighbor Carol, and Jonathan Brandis is her son.    Director Jeff Burr had made a name for himself with his 1987 horror anthology film From a Whisper to a Scream, featuring Vincent Price, Clu Gulager and Terry Kiser, and from all accounts, had a very smooth shooting process with this film. The trouble began when he turned in his cut to the producers. The producers were happy with the film, but when they sent it to Miramax, the American distributors, they were rather unhappy with the almost bloodless slasher film. They demanded reshoots, which Burr and O'Quinn refused to participate in. They brought in a new director, Doug Campbell, to handle the reshoots, which are easy to spot in the final film because they look and feel completely different from the scenes they're spliced into.   When it opened, The Stepfather II actually grossed slightly more than the first film did, earning $279k from 100 screens, compared to $260k for The Stepfather from 105 screens. But unlike the first film, which had some decent reviews when it opened, the sequel was a complete mess. To this day, it's still one of the few films to have a 0% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and The Stepfather II would limp its way through theatres during the Christmas holiday season, ending its run with a $1.5m gross.   But it would be their final film of the decade that would dictate their course for at least the first part of the 1990s.   Remember when I said earlier in the episode that Harvey Weinstein meant with the producers of another British film while in London for Scandal? We're at that film now, a film you probably know.   My Left Foot.   By November 1988, actor Daniel Day-Lewis had starred in several movies including James Ivory's A Room With a View and Philip Kaufman's The Unbearable Lightness of Being. He had even been the lead in a major Hollywood studio film, Pat O'Connor's Stars and Bars, a very good film that unfortunately got caught up in the brouhaha over the exit of the studio head who greenlit the film, David Puttnam.   The film's director, Jim Sheridan, had never directed a movie before. He had become involved in stage production during his time at the University College in Dublin in the late 1960s, where he worked with future filmmaker Neil Jordan, and had spent nearly a decade after graduation doing stage work in Ireland and Canada, before settling in New York City in the early 1980s. Sheridan would go to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where one of his classmates was Spike Lee, and return to Ireland after graduating. He was nearly forty, married with two pre-teen daughters, and he needed to make a statement with his first film.   He would find that story in the autobiography of Irish writer and painter Christy Brown, whose spirit and creativity could not be contained by his severe cerebral palsy. Along with Irish actor and writer Shane Connaughton, Sheridan wrote a screenplay that could be a powerhouse film made on a very tight budget of less than a million dollars.   Daniel Day-Lewis was sent a copy of the script, in the hopes he would be intrigued enough to take almost no money to play a physically demanding role. He read the opening pages, which had the adult Christy Brown putting a record on a record player and dropping the needle on to the record with his left foot, and thought to himself it would be impossible to film. That intrigued him, and he signed on. But during filming in January and February of 1989, most of the scenes were shot using mirrors, as Day-Lewis couldn't do the scenes with his left foot. He could do them with his right foot, hence the mirrors.   As a method actor, Day-Lewis remained in character as Christy Brown for the entire two month shoot. From costume fittings and makeup in the morning, to getting the actor on set, to moving him around between shots, there were crew members assigned to assist the actor as if they were Christy Brown's caretakers themselves, including feeding him during breaks in shooting. A rumor debunked by the actor years later said Day-Lewis had broken two ribs during production because of how hunched down he needed to be in his crude prop wheelchair to properly play the character.   The actor had done a lot of prep work to play the role, including spending time at the Sandymount School Clinic where the young Christy Brown got his education, and much of his performance was molded on those young people.   While Miramax had acquired the American distribution rights to the film before it went into production, and those funds went into the production of the film, the film was not produced by Miramax, nor were the Weinsteins given any kind of executive producer credit, as they were able to get themselves on Scandal.   My Left Foot would make its world premiere at the Montreal World Film Festival on September 4th, 1989, followed soon thereafter by screening at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 13th and the New York Film Festival on September 23rd. Across the board, critics and audiences were in love with the movie, and with Daniel Day-Lewis's performance. Jim Sheridan would receive a special prize at the Montreal World Film Festival for his direction, and Day-Lewis would win the festival's award for Best Actor. However, as the film played the festival circuit, another name would start to pop up. Brenda Fricker, a little known Irish actress who played Christy Brown's supportive but long-suffering mother Bridget, would pile up as many positive notices and awards as Day-Lewis. Although there was no Best Supporting Actress Award at the Montreal Film Festival, the judges felt her performance was deserving of some kind of attention, so they would create a Special Mention of the Jury Award to honor her.   Now, some sources online will tell you the film made its world premiere in Dublin on February 24th, 1989, based on a passage in a biography about Daniel Day-Lewis, but that would be impossible as the film would still be in production for two more days, and wasn't fully edited or scored by then.   I'm not sure when it first opened in the United Kingdom other than sometime in early 1990, but My Left Foot would have its commercial theatre debut in America on November 10th, when opened at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas in New York City and the Century City 14 in Los Angeles. Sheila Benson of the Los Angeles Times would, in the very opening paragraph of her review, note that one shouldn't see My Left Foot for some kind of moral uplift or spiritual merit badge, but because of your pure love of great moviemaking. Vincent Canby's review in the New York Times spends most of his words praising Day-Lewis and Sheridan for making a film that is polite and non-judgmental.    Interestingly, Miramax went with an ad campaign that completely excluded any explanation of who Christy Brown was or why the film is titled the way it is. 70% of the ad space is taken from pull quotes from many of the top critics of the day, 20% with the title of the film, and 10% with a picture of Daniel Day-Lewis, clean shaven and full tooth smile, which I don't recall happening once in the movie, next to an obviously added-in picture of one of his co-stars that is more camera-friendly than Brenda Fricker or Fiona Shaw.   Whatever reasons people went to see the film, they flocked to the two theatres playing the film that weekend. It's $20,582 per screen average would be second only to Kenneth Branagh's Henry V, which had opened two days earlier, earning slightly more than $1,000 per screen than My Left Foot.   In week two, My Left Foot would gross another $35,133 from those two theatres, and it would overtake Henry V for the highest per screen average. In week three, Thanksgiving weekend, both Henry V and My Left Foot saw a a double digit increase in grosses despite not adding any theatres, and the latter film would hold on to the highest per screen average again, although the difference would only be $302. And this would continue for weeks. In the film's sixth week of release, it would get a boost in attention by being awarded Best Film of the Year by the New York Film Critics Circle. Daniel Day-Lewis would be named Best Actor that week by both the New York critics and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, while Fricker would win the Best Supporting Actress award from the latter group.   But even then, Miramax refused to budge on expanding the film until its seventh week of release, Christmas weekend, when My Left Foot finally moved into cities like Chicago and San Francisco. Its $135k gross that weekend was good, but it was starting to lose ground to other Oscar hopefuls like Born on the Fourth of July, Driving Miss Daisy, Enemies: A Love Story, and Glory.   And even though the film continued to rack up award win after award win, nomination after nomination, from the Golden Globes and the Writers Guild and the National Society of Film Critics and the National Board of Review, Miramax still held firm on not expanding the film into more than 100 theatres nationwide until its 16th week in theatres, February 16th, 1990, two days after the announcement of the nominees for the 62nd Annual Academy Awards. While Daniel Day-Lewis's nomination for Best Actor was virtually assured and Brenda Fricker was practically a given, the film would pick up three other nominations, including surprise nominations for Best Picture and Best Director. Jim Sheridan and co-writer Shane Connaughton would also get picked for Best Adapted Screenplay.   Miramax also picked up a nomination for Best Original Screenplay for sex, lies, and videotape, and a Best Foreign Language Film nod for the Italian movie Cinema Paradiso, which, thanks to the specific rules for that category, a film could get a nomination before actually opening in theatres in America, which Miramax would rush to do with Paradiso the week after its nomination was announced.   The 62nd Academy Awards ceremony would be best remembered today as being the first Oscar show to be hosted by Billy Crystal, and for being considerably better than the previous year's ceremony, a mess of a show best remembered as being the one with a 12 minute opening musical segment that included Rob Lowe singing Proud Mary to an actress playing Snow White and another nine minute musical segment featuring a slew of expected future Oscar winners that, to date, feature exact zero Oscar nominees, both which rank as amongst the worst things to ever happen to the Oscars awards show.   The ceremony, held on March 26th, would see My Left Foot win two awards, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress, as well as Cinema Paradiso for Best Foreign Film. The following weekend, March 30th, would see Miramax expand My Left Foot to 510 theatres, its widest point of release, and see the film made the national top ten and earn more than a million dollars for its one and only time during its eight month run.   The film would lose steam pretty quickly after its post-win bump, but it would eek out a modest run that ended with $14.75m in ticket sales just in the United States. Not bad for a little Irish movie with no major stars that cost less than a million dollars to make.   Of course, the early 90s would see Miramax fly to unimagined heights. In all of the 80s, Miramax would release 39 movies. They would release 30 films alone in 1991. They would release the first movies from Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith. They'd release some of the best films from some of the best filmmakers in the world, including Woody Allen, Pedro Almadovar, Robert Altman, Bernardo Bertolucci, Atom Egoyan, Steven Frears, Peter Greenaway, Peter Jackson, Neil Jordan, Chen Kaige, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Lars von Trier, and Zhang Yimou. In 1993, the Mexican dramedy Like Water for Chocolate would become the highest grossing foreign language film ever released in America, and it would play in some theatres, including my theatre, the NuWilshire in Santa Monica, continuously for more than a year.   If you've listened to the whole series on the 1980s movies of Miramax Films, there are two things I hope you take away. First, I hope you discovered at least one film you hadn't heard of before and you might be interested in searching out. The second is the reminder that neither Bob nor Harvey Weinstein will profit in any way if you give any of the movies talked about in this series a chance. They sold Miramax to Disney in June 1993. They left Miramax in September 2005. Many of the contracts for the movies the company released in the 80s and 90s expired decades ago, with the rights reverting back to their original producers, none of whom made any deals with the Weinsteins once they got their rights back.   Harvey Weinstein is currently serving a 23 year prison sentence in upstate New York after being found guilty in 2020 of two sexual assaults. Once he completes that sentence, he'll be spending another 16 years in prison in California, after he was convicted of three sexual assaults that happened in Los Angeles between 2004 and 2013. And if the 71 year old makes it to 107 years old, he may have to serve time in England for two sexual assaults that happened in August 1996. That case is still working its way through the British legal system.   Bob Weinstein has kept a low profile since his brother's proclivities first became public knowledge in October 2017, although he would also be accused of sexual harassment by a show runner for the brothers' Spike TV-aired adaptation of the Stephen King novel The Mist, several days after the bombshell articles came out about his brother. However, Bob's lawyer, the powerful attorney to the stars Bert Fields, deny the allegations, and it appears nothing has occurred legally since the accusations were made.   A few weeks after the start of the MeToo movement that sparked up in the aftermath of the accusations of his brother's actions, Bob Weinstein denied having any knowledge of the nearly thirty years of documented sexual abuse at the hands of his brother, but did allow to an interviewer for The Hollywood Reporter that he had barely spoken to Harvey over the previous five years, saying he could no longer take Harvey's cheating, lying and general attitude towards everyone.   And with that, we conclude our journey with Miramax Films. While I am sure Bob and Harvey will likely pop up again in future episodes, they'll be minor characters at best, and we'll never have to focus on anything they did ever again.   Thank you for joining us. We'll talk again soon, when Episode 119 is released.   Remember to visit this episode's page on our website, The80sMoviePodcast.com, for extra materials about the movies we covered this episode.   The 80s Movies Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Edward Havens for Idiosyncratic Entertainment.   Thank you again.   Good night.

With its outrageous audience, pioneering programme, all night film marathons and a particularly vicious house cat, The Scala cinema in London's King's Cross blazed a flamboyant trail across the repertory cinema scene of the 70s, 80s and 90s. As Jane Giles recounts in her book on The Scala, director John Waters describes it as “a country club for criminals and lunatics and people that were high... which is a good way to see movies..." Among that membership were the burgeoning creative filmmakers of the 21st century - Christopher Nolan, Peter Strickland, Joanna Hogg and Ben Wheatley to name a few. Ellen E Jones separates truth from legend with the man who started it all - film producer and director Stephen Woolley. They discuss the infamous screenings, the intersection of music, politics and film, and the ‘collective of lost souls' who came together over a shared love of film. Mark Kermode discusses the age of cinema before video and streaming with film writer and curator Anne Bilson. They remember trekking across London by bus to hunt down one-off screenings, and staying up all night for kung fu specials. Mark then talks to film programmer Andrew Woodyatt about invoking the spirit of The Scala for today's audiences at his weekly Queer Cinema club, the Pink Palace at the Rio Cinema. And in this week's Viewing Note, filmmaker Carol Morley remembers a Scala moment which has haunted her dreams ever since. Producer: Freya Hellier A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

Hello! Welcome to another edition of the exclusive audio commentary podcast hosted by me, David Hughes. This episode is sponsored by boutique Blu-ray label Plumeria Pictures, whose latest release is The Big Man, aka Crossing the Line, an underrated 1990 drama with a blistering lead performance by Liam Neeson, and a cast that includes Joanne Whalley, Ian Bannen, Billy Connolly, Hugh Grant, Peter Mullan and more. The Blu-ray contains not one but three new audio commentaries, from producer Stephen Woolley, director David Leland and screenwriter Don Macpherson. Check out this and other Plumeria exclusives at PlumeriaPics.co.uk and use code ROGUE10 at checkout to get 10% off storewide. For this, our 25th episode, I'm delighted to welcome Academy Award® nominated screenwriter, director, podcaster and famous non-reader of scripts Josh Olson, for a walk through A History of Violence, David Cronenberg's 2005 adaptation of the 1997 graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke. Olson received his first Oscar® nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for the film, and if you've read the source material, it's easy to see why, as he distilled the essence from Wagner and Locke's neo-noir page-turner – which is almost impossible not to read in a single sitting – into a film that goes fathoms deeper in its exploration of how violence infects ordinary people, as insidiously, inescapably and devastatingly as any of the physiological effects in Cronenberg's body-horror oeuvre. I'm immensely grateful to Josh for joining me on this journey, not least because his episode-by-episode deconstruction of The West Wing in his and Dave Anthony's podcast The West Wing Thing, was key to making lockdown bearable. I'm also a long time fan of his other podcast, The Movies That Made Me, and I'm now juggling episodes of that with episodes of his brilliant audio drama podcast Bronzeville, starring Laurence Fishburne, Lorenz Tate, Mekhi Pfeiffer, Lance Reddick and many more, with his new politics podcast The Audit. In short, it's all Josh all the time on my podcast player. Comments? Feedback? Suggestions? Email David *at * Rogue-Commentary *dot* com or send us a tweet. We have lots of exciting episodes in the works, so if you like what you hear – or just the idea – please subscribe, and remember to rate us wherever you hear this podcast – it'll really help us to keep going. Oh, and follow us on Twitter and/or Instagram to stay up-to-date on our forthcoming releases. Thanks for listening! A Synchronicity production. Conceived, written and presented by David Hughes. Produced by Sam Ibrahim. Music by Olli Oja. All content © 2023 Synchronicity II Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hello! Welcome to the latest edition of the exclusive audio commentary podcast hosted by me, David Hughes. This episode is sponsored by boutique Blu-ray label Plumeria Pictures, whose latest release is The Big Man, aka Crossing the Line, an underrated 1990 drama with a blistering lead performance by Liam Neeson, and a cast that includes Joanne Whalley, Ian Bannen, Billy Connolly, Hugh Grant, Peter Mullan and more. The Blu-ray contains not one but three new audio commentaries, from producer Stephen Woolley, director David Leland and screenwriter Don Macpherson. Check out this and other Plumeria exclusives at PlumeriaPics.co.uk and use code ROGUE10 at checkout to get 10% off storewide. For this episode, I'm delighted to welcome one of my favourite film critics, Walter Chaw, author of the new book A Walter Hill Film: Tragedy and Masculinity in the films of Walter Hill, published by MZS Press. Chaw's insights opened up a whole new perspective for me on Walter Hill's filmography, and when I decided to open up the Rogue Commentary concept beyond filmmakers, Chaw immediately came to mind. So without further ado, here he is with an exclusive audio commentary for Walter Hill's Streets of Fire, which you can find here (UK) and here (US). Comments? Feedback? Suggestions? Email David *at * Rogue-Commentary *dot* com or send us a tweet. We have lots of exciting episodes in the works, so if you like what you hear – or just the idea – please subscribe, and remember to rate us wherever you hear this podcast – it'll really help us to keep going. Oh, and follow us on Twitter and/or Instagram to stay up-to-date on our forthcoming releases. Thanks for listening! A Synchronicity production. Conceived, written and presented by David Hughes. Produced by Sam Ibrahim. Music by Olli Oja. All content © 2023 Synchronicity II Ltd. All rights reserved.

The force behind successes including Carol, Mothering Sunday and Made in Dagenham, Liz Karlsen - who alongside her partner, Stephen Woolley, runs the BAFTA-winning Number 9 Films - details working with Todd Haynes, getting a cast together, the controversial legacy of The Crying Game, and why a producer just has to keep getting up in the morning.Music by Lee Rosevere. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello! Welcome to the latest edition of the exclusive audio commentary podcast hosted by me, David Hughes. In this, the 21st episode, I'm very excited to be joined by screenwriter Don MacPherson, who skilfully adapted William McIlvanney's brilliant novel The Big Man into the hugely underrated film of the same name, directed by David Leland and starring Liam Neeson, Ian Bannen, Billy Connolly, Joanne Whalley-Kilmer, Hugh Grant and Peter Mullan, with music by Ennio Morricone. Produced by Stephen Woolley under the Palace Pictures banner, The Big Man sadly wasn't a big hit, but it really captures the spirit not only of McIlvanney's extraordinarily insightful novel, but also of the times, specifically the crushed spirits of the colliery workers and their communities in the aftermath of Thatcher's crushing of the miner's strike. I'm very grateful to Don for walking us through the making of The Big Man, which is ripe for reassessment and well worth seeking out. In the meantime, here's a Letterboxd link. Thanks to Nick Pourgorides from Casarotto Ramsay & Associates for putting us in touch. Comments? Feedback? Suggestions? Email David *at * Rogue-Commentary *dot* com or send us a tweet. We have lots of exciting episodes in the works, so if you like what you hear – or just the idea – please subscribe, and remember to rate us wherever you hear this podcast – it'll really help us to keep going. Oh, and follow us on Twitter and/or Instagram to stay up-to-date on our forthcoming releases. Thanks for listening! A Synchronicity production. Conceived, written and presented by David Hughes. Produced by Sam Ibrahim. Music by Olli Oja. All content © 2022 Synchronicity II Ltd. All rights reserved.

In this episode, Anna hears from Eva Husson and Odessa Young, the director and star of Mothering Sunday. They discuss the quiet radicalism of a period drama that tells a woman's story without the primary focus of female struggle, and how mesmerising it is to watch a female creator come into her own. Anna, Eva and Odessa also chat about the teething problems around the burgeoning role of intimacy coordinators on set, how the industry is (or isn't) changing for women, and battling grey weather and gales to make England look sunny on screen. Next, Anna speaks to the co-directors of Rebel Dykes, Harri Shanahan and Sian A. Williams. Telling the story of a community of lesbians who met in the 1980s “doing art, music, politics and sex”, Rebel Dykes was recently nominated for the BIFA Discovery Award, and is a firm favourite of Girls On Film. Harri and Sian discuss the process of collecting their Rebel Dykes archive, the stories they wanted to tell (spoiler: this is definitely not “another sad lesbian film”), and the unique tone they managed to strike with Rebel Dykes — humour and queer joy at the forefront of an important documentary. Mothering Sunday is out in cinemas now and is produced by Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley. Rebel Dykes is out in cinemas and on digital on the 26th of November 2021. Become a patron of Girls on Film on Patreon here: www.patreon.com/girlsonfilmpodcast Follow us on socials: www.instagram.com/girlsonfilm_podcast/ www.facebook.com/girlsonfilmpodcast www.twitter.com/GirlsOnFilm_Pod www.twitter.com/annasmithjourno Watch Girls On Film on the BFI's YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLX…L89QKZsN5Tgr3vn7z Girls On Film is an HLA production. Executive producer: Hedda Archbold. Audio Producer: Emma Butt. This episode was produced in partnership with Rémy Martin. Interns: Rosa Herxheimer and Shanaiya Pithiya.

Here our special guest from the UK, film and television actor Leo Gregory (Instagram: @leogregs). Gregory has appeared in many films such as the BAFTA winning "When I was 12",BAFTA and Michael Powell award-winning "Out of Control", Green Street, the Stephen Woolley directed Stoned, BAFTA winning "The Mark of Cain", "Wild Bill" and " Northmen" to name but a few. Television wise Gregory has appeared in the likes of "Mrs Biggs" for ITV, "The Musketeers" for BBC "Strike Back" for HBO/Cinemax and "Foyle's War" for ITV. He also cares about mental health and that's what we are going to talk about in this special episode of “No Pasa Nada: Coming Clean”. Leo gives us his point of view about Bovver, his character in the movie “Green Streets Hooligans”, recovery, being able to admit that's it's okay not being okay and that boys cry too. Ecco il nostro ospite speciale, l'attore di film e tv Leo Gregory (Instagram: @leogregs). Gregory è apparso in molti film come il vincitore del premio BAFTA “When I was 12”, del vincitore del BAFTA e del Michael Powell award “Out of Control”, nel film “Hooligans”, e in altre pellicole premiate BAFTA quali “The Mark of Cain”, “Wild Bill” e “Northmen”. Leo tiene molto anche all'ambito della “salute mentale” ed è il tema che affronteremo in questo episodio speciale di “No Pasa Nada: Coming Clean”. Leo ci fornisce il suo punto di vista su Bovver (personaggio del film “Hooligans”), il recovery, l'importanza di riconoscere che è ok non stare sempre bene e che, anche i maschi, piangono. Per lasciarci un messaggio o per richieste di collaborazione:

The Company of Wolves, released September 21st in 1984, is a re-telling of Red Riding Hood... Kind of. It's also a tale about growing up, about the greys between good and evil, and about pretty tense werewolf transformations. Got feedback? Send us an email at oldiebutagoodiepod@gmail.com Follow the show! Facebook: https://fb.me/oldiebutagoodiepod Omny: https://omny.fm/shows/oldie-but-a-goodie YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjfdXHxK_rIUsOEoFSx-hGA Songs from 1984 Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/39v1MbWf849XD8aau0yA52 Follow the hosts! Sandro Falce - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandrofalce/ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/sandrofalce - Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/SandroFalce/ Zach Adams - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zach4dams/ Listen to Sandro's other podcast: Nerd-Out! https://omny.fm/shows/nerdout  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Following host Kevin Dawson's first conversation with newly BAFTA-winning producer Stephen in the last episode, Kevin gets the lowdown on the second half of Stephen's illustrious career so far. Continuing on Interview With the Vampire and working with Cruise and Pitt, they also talk about Stoned and the implications of rock star murder surrounding the story, as well as female empowerment in movies such as Collette, Carol, Your Finest, Byzantium and Made in Dagenham.

Screen International looks at the serious business of awards season in the first of our new Media Business Podcasts, which will be brought to listeners monthly by Media Business Insight, the publisher of Screen International and Broadcast. In this inaugural episode, Screen International editor Matt Mueller is joined by the director of Film4 Daniel Battsek and Screen International’s chief film critic Finn Halligan and features editor Charles Gant to discuss this year’s awards season, looking in particular at what it means for talent and studios and what it takes to win an Oscar these days. As a former president of Miramax and Buena Vista International, Battsek reflects on how awards season has changed over the years. In the second part of the episode, we sit down with Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley from Number 9 Films, who will be honoured at this year’s Bafta film awards ceremony for their Outstanding Contribution to British Cinema. Producers of acclaimed features including Carol, Made In Dagenham and Colette, Karlsen and Woolley discuss what the Bafta honour means to them as independent producers, and what it’s like to navigate the awards season trail. It’s a journey that goes all the way back to 1992’s The Crying Game

Originally Elizabeth Karlsen wanted to become a genetic engineer to engage in the world but she ended up doing that in producing movies. With her partner Stephen Woolley she’s set up Number 9 Films in 2002 and the’ve become one of the most important producing partners in the UK.  Listen to her talk about her way from peeling carrots on a Steve Buscemi Set to getting a movie such as Carol or Colette made- with all its challenges.

In the first of a series of specials, we've partnered with the team at Media Business Insight to take a closer look at the media business - brought to you monthly by Media Business Insight, the publisher of Screen International and Broadcast. In this inaugural episode, Screen International editor Matt Mueller is joined by the director of Film4 Daniel Battsek and Screen International's chief film critic Finn Halligan and features editor Charles Gant to discuss this year's awards season, looking in particular at what it means for talent and studios and what it takes to win an Oscar these days. As a former president of Miramax and Buena Vista International, Battsek reflects on how awards season has changed over the years. In the second part of the episode, we sit down with Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley from Number 9 Films, who will be honoured at this year's Bafta film awards ceremony for their Outstanding Contribution to British Cinema. Producers of acclaimed features including Carol, Made In Dagenham and Colette, Karlsen and Woolley discuss what the Bafta honour means to them as independent producers, and what it's like to navigate the awards season trail. It's a journey that goes all the way back to 1992's The Crying Game.A PPM Production for Media Business Insight - find them at mb-insight.com. You can subscribe to the Media Business Podcast now.For more from Screen International, visiit ScreenDaily.com. Website is mb-insight.com Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/themediapodcast. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

You may not be familiar with her name, but you will certainly know her films. For Elizabeth Karlsen has produced a whole host of cinematic gems - including The Crying Game, Little Voice, Made In Dagenham, Great Expectations and Carol. And having spoken to her husband Stephen Woolley on this show previously, it's a pleasure to welcome her to Soundtracking, Edith's weekly podcast about screen music. Indeed, such has their lasting influence been that they are to receive The Outstanding British Contribution To Cinema at the 2019 BAFTA Film Awards. Elizabeth's latest project is Colette. Staring Keira Knightly and Dominic West, Colette tells the true story of a French woman whose husband exploits her creative talents by persuading her to write under his name. The success of the ensuing series of novels brings them both considerable fame, though she soon becomes frustrated that she cannot take the credit she deserves. Colette is scored by Thomas Adès, and it is with his title track from the movie that we begin our interview. You'll also hear music from Bronski Beat, Frank Sinatra and Minnie Riperton among others. We should add that there's a fair bit of choice language in this episode - not least from the mouth of Sir Michael Caine …

BAFTA-Winning Film Producer Stephen Woolley talks at his production company Number 9 Films to host Kevin Dawson about his hands-on Arthouse and World cinema education before managing the infamous Scala cinema himself. He details distributing The Evil Dead and how Sam Raimi slept at his house, as well as tales of producing classics such as Company of Wolves, Mona Lisa, Absolute Beginners, The Crying Game and Interview With the Vampire. And, how he pitched a film to Sean Connery in a lift.

Mark talks to producer Stephen Woolley about the glory days of the Scala Cinema.

We've already spoken to one legendary British producer on this show in the shape of Stephen Woolley. Now it's the turn of David Heyman. Like Stephen, David's CV is enviable. As well as producing all the of Harry Potter films and spin-off Fantastic Beasts, he's also the man behind The Light Between Oceans, Testament Of Youth and Gravity among many, many other celebrated movies. And as we'll discover, music very much falls under his remit. The list of composers David has worked with is mighty impressive, from John Williams and James Newton Howard to Steven Price, Max Richter and Dario Marianelli, who scored his latest project, the delightful Paddington 2. Perhaps surprisingly, David loves hip-hop, which informed his first movie as a producer, Juice, the 1992 thriller starring late rapper Tupac Shakur. And given that we kick off by playing tracks and a clip from the film, we should warn you that there's inevitably a fair bit of choice language in this episode ...

With Francine Stock. Warren Beatty talks about his latest directorial outing, Rules Don't Apply, which he made 18 years after he directed his last movie. And reveals what he thinks now about the mix-up at the Oscars. Their Finest producer Stephen Woolley and Fiona Kelly from The Imperial War Museum take us through the little known history of women's roles in World War II pictures, as a season he's curated at the British Film Institute begins. Mohamed Diab reveals why his controversial film about Egyptian politics, Clash, was only shown in his home country thanks to the intervention of Tom Hanks.

Good grief, does this fine gentleman have a few stories to tell. Whether discussing Tony Hancock with David Bowie or royally pissing off Harvey Weinstein, British producer Stephen Woolley has been there, done that, and bought the (band) T-shirt. Stephen is perhaps best known for his work with Neil Jordan on films such as Interview With The Vampire, The Company Of Wolves, Michael Collins and the Oscar-winning Crying Game. He also directed the Brian Jones biopic Stoned and executive-produced Backbeat - which focused on fifth Beatle Stuart Sutcliffe. If you need any further evidence of his credentials for Soundtracking, he's variously secured the services of David Bowie, Jerry Dammers, Dusty Springfield, Boy George and the Pet Shop Boys for movies he's produced. You'll hear songs from all of these artists woven into the conversation - as well as extracts from Carl Davis' theme for Scandal, Anne Dudley's work on The Crying Game and Rachel Portman's score for Stephen's latest film, Their Finest. But our story begins in punk London - the city where Stephen's love of music and film germinated ...

With Francine Stock. Stephen Woolley, producer of The Crying Game, reveals why the film almost never got made and the lengths he went to keep the movie's famous twist a secret. Critics Tim Robey and Larushka Ivan-Zadeh talk about twists that work and twists that don't, without giving away the twist. Sandra Hebron and Ceyda Uzun slug it out to get their chosen director into The A To Z Of Film. This week it's James Cameron versus Jane Campion in the battle of the weepies - Titanic versus The Piano.

It's very nice to be quoted: A couple of recent mentions for The Reunion. Stephen Woolley on Loose Ends talking about being inspired by hearing the girl strikers from Dagenham, and Naomi Alderman on our recent Hutton gathering.

Reality Check: Living in Byzantium In a panel discussion recorded at SCI-FI-LONDON, Alex Fitch talks to producer Stephen Woolley, writer Moira Buffini and star Daniel Mays about the new British vampire movie Byzantium, directed by Neil Jordan, which depicts the back story and current lives of a pair of female vampires living in modern day […]

A interview triple bill for you this week with actor Jake Gyllenhaal (End Of Watch), director Ben Wheatley (Sightseers) and producer Stephen Woolley (Great Expectations) all dropping by to talk a whole load of waffle with the Empire Podcast team. Elsewhere, the Star Wars Episode VII news round-up continues apace, Star Trek Into Darkness gets a synopsis and Susan Boyle biopic casting suggestions are made.

Screenwriter and novelist Rhidian Brook joins Simon and Mark at the start of the programme to talk about 'Africa United'. He wrote the screenplay to the film, which tells the story of a group of young football fans trying to walk thousands of miles to South Africa for the opening ceremony of the World Cup.The actress Lesley Manville talks to Mark and Simon about her new movie Another Year. It's directed by Mike Leigh and goes on general release in a couple of weeks' time - it's been showing at this week's London Film FestivalMark and Simon run through the week's top ten films. The producer of Made in Dagenham, Stephen Woolley, joins them for a chat about his issue with the '15' certificate given to the film.In hour two, Mark and Simon review the week's big films which include Paranormal Activity 2, Red, The Arbor, Easy A, Legends of The Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole and Mary and Max.You can email your comments on the show to mayo@bbc.co.uk.

Mark Kermode joins Simon Mayo with this week's box office top ten and reviews of the week's new film releases including: Made in Dagenham, Buried, Takers, Little Big Soldier and The First Movie.The special guest is veteran film producer Stephen Woolley, who's enjoyed box office success including Mona Lisa, The Company of Wolves and The Crying Game. His latest film is Made in Dagenham, about the industrial action by female workers at Ford's Dagenham plant in the 1960sHe tells Mark and Simon about his concerns over the British Board of Film Classification's decision to give the film a 15 certificate because of swearing, while other films with more graphic violent content have been granted 12A certificates.Plus updates from Celtic Manor on the rain-affected Ryder Cup.